Name: Scallops of Cold Veal or Chicken
Ingredients: cold veal or chicken; nutmeg; pepper; coarse sea salt; cream; bread crumbs; butter

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scallops of Cold Veal or Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Mince the meat extremely small.
Heat the minced meat with a scrape of nutmeg, a little pepper, coarse sea salt, and cream for a few minutes.
Place the mixture into scallop shells.
Fill the shells with bread crumbs and top with bits of butter.
Brown the shells before the fire.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,920 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,997 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, cream, bread, butter):

Nutmegthe original
Parsleyfits about as well
Sagefits about as well
Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, cream, bread, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.